EU to Propose 90% Emissions-Reduction Target for 2040

The new target will be part of an amendment to the European Climate Law, which provides a framework to achieve the bloc’s carbon neutrality by 2050 target.

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The European Union’s executive is expected to propose a law to set a new interim emissions-reduction target at 90% by 2040, a move that places the bloc a step closer to its decarbonization goal.

The new target will be included in an amendment to the European Climate Law, which provides a framework to achieve the bloc’s legally binding target of reaching carbon neutrality by mid-century. The bloc has already pledged to cut net emissions by 55% by 2030 compared with 1990 levels.

The plan is part of the European Commission’s Work Programme for 2025, which focusses on competitiveness, defense and simplifications of administrative procedures and implementation of EU rules.

For the Greens, this simplification may be used as “an excuse to strip away elements of the Green Deal and social progress.”

“Simplification as a tool to make companies’ and peoples’ lives easier can be beneficial but not as a byword for stripping away the Green Deal and social progress,” said Terry Reintke, President of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group. “The planet is burning and we cannot risk letting the positive steps we have taken be reversed under the guise of reducing bureaucracy.”

The group also criticized the absence of any clear measures aimed at protecting nature, decarbonizing the transportation sector, and reducing emissions. The Commission on Wednesday pledged to put forward a “strategic framework” for the production and distribution of sustainable transport fuels that will also include measures to “support the accelerated roll-out of recharging and refuelling infrastructure and dedicated green trade and investment partnerships with third countries on renewable and low-carbon transport fuels.”

The new proposed goal faced backlash from far-right political factions and some member states, worried of an overly stringent target at a time when Europe faced elevated energy costs and waning competitiveness against global powers like China and the US.

To address these concerns, the Commission later this month will introduce a strategy aimed at enhancing Europe’s industrial competitiveness, improve access to affordable energy, and strengthen economic security.

More on the topic: Paris Agreement’s 1.5C Threshold Breach Could Come ‘Earlier Than Expected’, Scientists Warn

Missed Deadline

182 countries missed a Monday deadline to submit new national climate plans to the UN, including some of the biggest polluters like China, India, and the EU.

Under the Paris Agreement, each signatory country must submit its own plan for emissions reductions, known as a Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the overall targets. Countries are required to update them every five years, and were due to send their national climate plans for the next decade by February 10.

Only three of the world’s 10 largest economies – Brazil, the UK, and the US – submitted their updated NDCs in time, though Canada has since submitted a plan.

None of the national plans submitted thus far is compatible with the 1.5C goal, according to Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific project that tracks government climate action and measures it against the globally agreed Paris Agreement. The consortium also indicated that the UK’s plan, which includes a goal to cut carbon emissions 81% by 2035 relative to 1990 levels, is the only one that is somewhat consistent with the Paris goal.

“The UK government has an opportunity to be the first developed country to have an NDC that aligns with global least cost pathways towards the 1.5°C limit in the Paris agreement,” Climate Action Tracker’s analysis read. “Its 2030 NDC is only 2% short of the level we calculate would be 1.5°C-consistent and the proposal put forward by the UK’s Climate Change Committee of an 81% reduction for 2035 would be just within the 1.5°C compatible range we estimate. This would be an important signal to the world, if backed up by credible policies to meet these goals and close the implementation gap inherited from the previous government.”

The US submitted its NDC 3.0 in December, prior to President Trump’s inauguration. Trump has since exited the Paris Agreement, raising fears that its goals could suffer a major setback. In November, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the US to “adopt the kind of policies that are necessary to make the 1.5 degrees still a realistic objective.”

“The Paris agreement can survive, but people sometimes can lose important organs or lose the legs and survive. But we don’t want a crippled Paris agreement. We want a real Paris agreement,” Guterres said.

Dozens more nations are expected to publish updated plans within the next nine months, ahead of the UN’s annual climate summit, known as COP30, in Brazil.

Off Track

Virtually every country on Earth adopted a global warming target a decade ago by signing the Paris Agreement, which set out a framework for limiting global warming to below 1.5C or “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Beyond this limit, experts warn that critical tipping points will be breached, leading to devastating and potentially irreversible consequences for several vital Earth systems that sustain a hospitable planet.

They have not been able to keep to that promise, with current global emissions pledges putting the world on track for a temperature increase of 2.6-3.1C over the course of this century.

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